40 ART -Coned introduced a new way for visitors to take in many of the exhibits: "Expedition," a self- guided tour of fifty treasures, including the Giant Sequoia, the Blue Whale, and the Komodo Dragon displays. You et out from the "base camp" with a free guidebook (a children's version is available), or you can rent a CD player with a recorded guide (Open daily, 10 to 5:45, and Friday and Saturday evenings until 8:45.) BROOKLYN MUSEUM, Eastern Parkway-"Thomas Cole: Landscape into History." Cole (1801- 1848), the English-born founder of the Hudson River school, started out as an ardent Romantic, painting arcadian visions of New World wilderness. In hIS maturity, pessimism emerged. His masterwork is an allegorical series called "The Course of Em- pire"-five paintings that prophesy the de- cline of the American republic under the menacing sway of greed and militarism Through April 2. (Open Wednesdays through Sundays, 10 to 5.) BARD GRADUATE CENTER, 18 W. 86th t.-A selec- tion of nineteenth- and twentieth-century decorative arts from the Sydney and Frances Lewis Collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Through Feb. 26. (Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 to 5, and Thursday evenings until 8:30.) COOPER-HEWITT MUSEUM, Fifth Ave. at 91st St - Books, catcllogues, signs, and stationery, mostly from the fifties and sixties, by the graphic designer Elaine Lu tig Cohen. . . . f1I "Good Offices and Beyond: The Evolution of the Workplace" surveys the development of equipment designed to manage paper, num- bers, time, and information. Through March 19....f1I"The Structure of Style: Dutch Modernism in the Applied Arts 1880-1930." Selected ceramics, magazine covers, and glassware, among other objects, detail a pe- riod of increasing industrialization in Europe. (Open Tuesdays, 10 to 9, with no admission charge after 5; Wednesdays through Satur- days, 10 to 5; Sundays, noon to 5.) MORGAN LIBRARY. 29 E 36th St.-' 'In Praise of Aldus Manutius: A Quincentenary Exhibi- tion." A large group of books from the house of the master printer who introduced roman and italic type and the radical idea of portable pnnted books. Through April 9. . . . f1I "The Collector's Eye," a tribute to the trustee and benefactor Julia Parker Wightman, who died last summer. Culled from the thou,ands of objects she gave to the library, this display includes a Flemish Book of Hours from 1440, the finest extant copy of Galileo's "Dialogo" (1632), and a group of miniature eighteenth-century children's books. Through April 2.... f1I Several letters from the hand of Frederick Douglass are on view. (Open Tue days through Fridays, 10:30 to 5; Saturdays, 10:30 to 6; Sundays, noon to 6.) NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN. 1 Bowl- ing Green-"Creation's Journey: Mdsterwork of Native American Identity and Belief." . . . f1I "All Roads Are Good: Native Voices on Life and Culture." . . . f1I "This Path We Travel: Celebrations of Contemporary Native Ameri- can Creativity." (Open daily, 10 to 5.) THE NEW MUSEUM. 583 Broadway-Fifty large- scale photographs by Andres Serrano. Ex- amples from all of his thematic series since 1983-including "Bodily Fluids," "Ejacula- tions," "ImmersIons" (whence came the no- torious "Piss Christ' '), "Morgue," and the new "Gun"-are here. Through April 9 (Open Wednesdays through Fridays, and Sundays, noon to 6; Saturdays, noon to 8.) NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY. Fifth Ave. at 42nd St.- An exhibition on the works of the French fable writer Jean de La Fontaine (1621-95) is in the Solomon Room. Seventeenth-century pe- riod music sets the [one for the display of rare book , drawings, scores, and other ob- jects. Through April 15.... f1I "Garbage! The History and Politic of Trash in New York City." A show that lets you troll through our fair city's horse-skinning, fat- rendering, and bone-boiling factories, through cattle yards, hog pens, and manure yards. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century photo- graphs, prints, maps, sculptures, and arti- facts are on view, serving to bring the streets to your nose. Through Feb. 25.... f1I "e.e. cummings @ 100: An Anniversary Exhibition." (Open Mondays, and Thurs- days through Saturdays, 10 to 6; Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 11 to 6.) .... '\ \: '" .' " . M THE L.. 1 \, '\ 1.< The 12Sth versaq of The etropolitm \tuseum of Art IS a eelebranon of one of the world's f test coDedlons, now more s I cular th t ever I efor . . . I " . , J\< permanent co erion, spanning 5,000 }eMS of visual splendor, from ancient monument . J . ress toda}. Come and explore the man} worlds of The Aletropolitan Museum of . OP tITAN MUSEUM OF ART .. . GALLERIES-UPTOWN (Unless otherwzse noted, galleries are open Tuesdays through Saturdays,from around 10 or 11 to between 5 and 6. The following lists lead off with newshowsJ AGNES MARTIN-Recent paintings by an artist who didn't reach her mature style until the early sixties, when she was in her late forties. These works are in d new scale (five feet square rather than six feet square), but the familiar horizontal stripes, in new com- binations of yellow, pink, blue, and white, are still here. Opens Feb. 17. Through March 18. (Pace Wildenstein, 32 E. 57th St.) DAVID SMITH (1906-65)-Sculptures, paintings, and drawings from the forties, inspired by classical and jazz music. Opens Feb. 15. Through March 25. (Washburn, 20 W. 57th St.) CHRISTOPHER WILMARTH (1943-87)-Sculptures in steel, etched glass, and bronze, and several drawings. Opens Feb. 18. Through March 25. 0anis, 110 W. 57th St.) IICONSPIRATORIAL LAUGHTER-A FRIENDSHIP: MAN RAY AND DUCHAMplI-A large display of works by both artists, includIng "L.H.O.O.Q.," Duchamp's famous image of a bearded and mustached Mona Lisa, and Man Ray's re- sponse, "Le Père de la Giaconde' '-a cigar- smoking Leonardo da Vinci. Opens Feb. 15. Through April 8. (Zabriskie, 724 Fifth Ave., at 57th St.) . WILLIAM BAZIOTES (1912-63)-Wandering through this show of early and later works, it's hard to shake the impression that the artist was one of the New York School's lesser lights. His "Portrait of Ethel Baziotes" (1940) couldn't have pleased the sitter much,